The Melt Mouse isn't some Dali-esque nightmare, but rather a touchpad and haptic-equipped squeaker with serious Apple vibes

Gaming mice these days offer a wealth of features, like more remappable buttons than you can shake a magical cat girl stave at. However, I appreciate not everyone is a MMO sicko—so what if you feel like your gaming mouse has maybe too many buttons?

For those craving a smoother, tactile device, there's the wireless Melt Mouse. Billed as a 3-in-1 doo-hicky, the Melt Interface team are pitching it as part mouse, part trackpad, and part number pad.

Looking like a smooth pebble, the top of the Melt Mouse features one curved plane of micro-textured glass with a built-in touchpad. Instead of clicky buttons, you get a little vibrating haptic feedback when you press down. This sleek little device's crowdfunding campaign has already achieved its initial goal of ¥5,000,000 (or about $33,000), and is well on its way to securing a total of ¥22,000,000 at time of writing. If all goes to plan, it'll be with backers September 2026.

From the solid aluminium body to the intuitive interface, it's not hard to understand the appeal—especially when the Melt Mouse seems intent on eating Apple's lunch. Besides offering a far less farcical charging port placement than Mac's infamous Magic Mouse, the Melt Mouse also allows you to do more than just left or right click.

You can swipe and scroll by gliding your fingers over the Melt Mouse's smooth surface, though full scroll wheel functionality isn't entirely forgotten about; you can still middle click by pressing down with both your index and middle finger.

To quote the Kickstarter, the sell is "No physical button. Just haptics," but that's not strictly true. Rather than being completely buttonless, there are two side-buttons on the Melt Mouse's left-hand edge. These, alongside the more gestural interface on top, will all be customisable via the Melt Studio app, apparently.

With the functionality promised by this bespoke software, the pitch isn't so much just 'what if your mice didn't have as many buttons?' as 'what if your mouse could do more than just click?'

But, with my creaky wrists and default claw mouse grip, I do have to wonder about the ergonomics of all this. With a weight somewhere between 115 and 130 g, the Melt Mouse is kind of hefty as far as gaming mice go, though its customisability and touch interface may still appeal to MMO fans.

Best gaming mouse 2025

1. Best wireless:
Razer DeathAdder V4 Pro

2. Best wired:
Logitech G502 X

3. Best budget wireless:
Logitech G305 Lightspeed

4. Best budget wired:
Glorious Model O Eternal

5. Best lightweight:
Corsair Sabre V2 Pro

6. Best MMO:
Corsair Scimitar Elite Wireless SE

7. Best compact:
Razer Cobra Pro

8. Best ambidextrous:
Logitech G Pro

9. Best ergonomic:
Keychron M5

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